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Collection Analysis
Collection Analysis: Canoga Park Branch Library
Ohnmar Aung
LIBR – 266
San Jose State University
Collection Analysis of the Canoga Park Branch Library
The Canoga Park Branch Library is one of the branch libraries apart of the Los Angeles Public Libraries (LAPL). It mainly serves the Canoga Park city area and the total population is 23,508. The total square foot of the library is 12,000 and it is larger than other branch libraries.
According to the LAPL, the mission statement of the Canoga Park Branch library is to provide free and easy access to information, ideas, books and technology that enriches, educates and empowers every individual in the cities diverse communities. It aims to encourage the thousands of people who visit the library to read, browse the materials, use electronic resources, attend programs and request information from the staff. I was curious to analyze the collection of this library because of the diverse nationality of the surrounding area, its immigrant and Spanish speaking culture, and because it also contains a wide range of age groups in the community.
According to my analysis, I found that the library’s collection serves the community needs effectively because of its current collections, its overall quality and that it serves the communities needs well.
In general, the collection is current. The collection is divided into two sections: Children’s collection and Adults collection. There are 15,000 books for children and 45,000 books for adults. In the children’s collection, there are many new books for children’s international languages, picture books, holiday books and references in Spanish. Moreover, there are many new fiction and mystery books for teenagers and young adults for their pleasure and holiday readings.
Generally, the science selection should be relatively new in order for the collection to be current; In the library the 500’s and 600’s of children and adults collection are current. There are 1,500 science books for children and 4,500 books for adults and the whole science collection covers 10% of the total library collection. Among children’s science books, it is found that 75% are less than ten years old.
In the adult science section, there are 250 Technology books, 380 Mathematics books, 95 Physics, 120 Chemistry and 280 Biology books. 75% of computer books are less than 5 years old and the other 25% is between 5 to 10 years old. Among Mathematics books, 75% is also less than 5 years old and 20% is between 5-10 years old. But 20% of Physics and Chemistry books are less than 5 years old and 50% are between 5-10 years old. According to the statistics above, most of the science area is current and its selection should be useful for its new generation of modern science readers.
Additionally, the collection is found to be useful for all levels of ages and it is being used well. Most of the science books are checked out to be used as references for students’ homework help and many returned books are on shelves in the return area. Medical Science and medical related books covers 25% of the science collection and they are selected according to the high number of people who work in the medical environment in the community. Other than these areas, there are books for gardening, pets care, cooking and household repair. These are intended for the retired people, for people who do house maintenance or for the people who spend time for their leisure. Finally, 5% of the science selection relates to Accounting, Word Processing, Typing and Job searching and it is intended for the people who are searching for a job. This shows why the collection’s variety represents all levels of ages and that it is being well used by the community.
The strength of the library is having a big Spanish selection and many international language books. Because there is a big Spanish population and a variety of other nationalities in the community, books in Spanish and other languages are useful to aid the diversity of languages in the community. Obviously, there is a big Spanish reference section in the children’s area and books in Vietnamese, Chinese, France, German, Japan, Korean, Italian and Arab are available in the international languages section. These are useful for the new immigrants.
Other than having a current science selection, useful books for all ages and having Spanish and international language books, there is a collection for teens containing SAT, GED, ACT, GRE, TOEFL and AP exams and Cliffs Notes. These are essential for teens for their educational success.
According to the mission statement of the library and the needs of the community, the library collection consists of Spanish and international language collections, a new children’s collection, a useful collection for adults and retirees and a collection for teens’ education and their career success. The collection is current in Science, which provides information on modern technology and science. For the reasons above, and the knowledge that many books are checked out and returned, demonstrates that the library is well used by the community, and therefore the collection meets the needs of its community.